Bullet Proof Cars arrive for Modi’s Kashmir Visit

Jammu/Srinagar, Nov 5: Bullet proof luxury cars including a customized BMW reached Jammu on Thursday ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Jammu and Kashmir visit on Saturday. Several bullet-proof cars, made to order sedans and critical care ambulances also arrived in Jammu, the winter capital of the state.

“The cars came on train and will be used for VVIP visit,” a source said. T. Namgial, the inspector general of the Special Protection Group (SPG), reached Jammu on Wednesday. He held meetings with the police and other security agencies regarding the arrangements to be made at Baglihar in Ramban district of Jammu region and the Sher-e-Kashmir cricket stadium in Srinagar, the two venues where Modi will address public meetings.

“Both venues will be taken over by the SPG and sealed till the prime minister arrives,” a source said. They will be surveyed by air too. Modi will inaugurate the 450 MW phase second Baglihar power project in Ramban and a four-lane Udhampur-Bannihal stretch of the Jammu-Srinagar highway. At Baglihar, Modi will address a public meeting.

Modi will address a rally of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Srinagar on Saturday at 12.30 p.m. “It is going to be a grand rally,” Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh of the BJP told reporters. Kashmiri separatists have called for a counter rally in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital and the urban hub of the separatist movement, also on Saturday.

Srinagar authorities have told hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani that their rally cannot be held. Over 200 separatists, sympathizers and known stone-pelters have been taken into preventive custody. Police on Wednesday arrested Engineer Rashid, an independent legislator from north Kashmir’s Langate constituency who was earlier beaten up by BJP legislators in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly.

He was arrested in Watergam village of Baramulla district where he made a speech asking people to attend the separatist rally and stay away from Modi’s public meeting on Saturday. Separatist leaders including Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, Muhammad Nayeem Khan and others have been placed under house arrest.

Asiya Andrabi, chief of women’s separatist group, ‘Dukhtaran-e-Milat’ (Daughters of Faith), was arrested on Tuesday and lodged in a women police station in Srinagar.